Cursive handwriting is dying. But some politicians refuse to accept it. 

I will forever be cursed with a half cursive, half print hybrid penmanship.

Perhaps dying in the US but where I live everyone writes in cursive

I personally find cursive just faster because you need to take less breaks.

In Italy this often happens: pupils are taught cursive in elementary school. Then their cursive deteriorates and becomes illegible. By middle school, they switch to print. Then in high school as they need to take notes quickly and not lifting the pen is just more comfortable, they start joining letters in their own way and in fact develop a new cursive that is illegible to anybody but (sometimes) themselves. As a teacher.

In France everybody writes in cursive, we're taught to write cursive at a young age so it's natural for almost everyone.

I think cursive, once you master it, is way faster than print-your hand never leaves the page, you never have a disconnect, there is just a smooth flow from one word to the next

Middle school teacher says "Cursive is important if you want to do well in high school." Gets to high school. "You may write in print or cursive. Whatever you like." Me: -__-

Europeans watching this: 👁👄👁 People who write in Cyrillic watching this: 👁👄👁

for some people, writing in cursive is quicker. personally, I write in non-cursive, but when I write quickly, some letters just tend to link together naturally.

When I was in primary school, (private institution, 1990s and early 2000s, Australia) if we handed in our work without using cursive, it wasn't marked...... Now everyone always comments on how "fancy" my handwriting is. A Swedish exchange student once described it as "the penmanship of a elven princess" lol

this must be an American thing, everyone in the UK at least writes cursive

"Cursive handwriting is dying" My school in the Philippines where everyone is writing only in cursive: 👁️👄👁️

Cursive is dying in the US, other parts of the world still use it extensively. It doesn't actually make you write slower if you get used to it.

Literally every modern country except for the US: *uses cursive very frequently* Vox: Let's face it...cursive is dying.

In elementary school, my teachers told me that I had to learn cursive because it was faster and because it would be required in high school and in college. In my case, neither of these turned out to be true. I wrote slower when writing cursive because I couldn't legibly write in cursive unless I went at a snail's pace. Writing at a normal pace turned my script into an indecipherable series of loops. Once I got to high school, my teachers all required that essays be either typed or printed. They would not even accept cursive. The same was true in college.

In Germany it is totaly normal to learn cursive handwiting. I like it a lot. Not only because it helps me to write faster (especially while taking notes) but also because research shows it‘s positive effects on the brain. Cursive handwriting activates as many brain-regions as playing an instrument. It helps in developing complex thoughts and creative ideas.

We should be teaching the metric system, not cursive handwriting.

Isn’t cursive faster? I write pretty much everything in print now that I don’t have to write much by hand anymore, but if I’d have to write an essay by hand again, I’d switch over to cursive.

It's more important to teach children to learn how to read cursive than to write cursive in my opinion

I'm a 90s kid who studied in India. I'm not sure about now, but in the 90s, cursive writing was compulsory in the Indian schools (at least in Tamil Nadu). Because of that, I still write in cursive. When I wrote a farewell note to one of my ex-colleagues, my other officemates bantered me saying "oh look, a royal scroll written by Prince Mithun himself". 😂

Cursive was the first handwriting. My teachers be like: "I can't read your cursive handwriting!" Alo my teachers: why aren't you writing in cursive???"

I think cursive should be taught in art class instead of english. Typography is a wide art form, including calligraphy, hand lettering, type design, page layout, and much more.

As a kid (in the UK), I was taught cursive and used it all through primary school. When I got to secondary school and use of cursive was no longer enforced I went through a period of printing in capitals. Now Im an adult my handwriting is a weird mix of printing and cursive that doesnt follow any pattern, some parts of sentences are joined up, some are just capitals. Sometimes I catch myself changing from cursive to printing mid word. Oops.

It's simply quicker and more comfortable than writing out every single letter individually. What are you on about with the only reasons being tradition and patriotism or whatever?

i write cursive not because i like it, i do, nor because all the girls like it, but because it's much faster. it's faster for me to just write a single loooong line connecting all of the letters than every single time pull the pen up when i need to draw a different letter, or a different part of a letter.

I was originally taught print in 1st 2nd and 3rd grade then in 4th we spent the entire year learning how to write in cursive and now thanks to that my handwriting is a mess. It's like half cursive half print and even I can barely read it

"What are you talking about cursive is taught and required in my other country" Video literally only talking about the United States

I learned cursive in Elementary school. But as a teen I decided I wanted to improve my cursive handwriting to form a better signature. I ended up looking up cursive alphabets online and practicing them, the result of this was just a combination of all the methods, which too be honest looks really unique and somewhat informal. I'm really glad I did it to be honest, I have a style that's probably like no other.

I remember my teachers in elementary always saying "you will be using this for highschool and college!!!" They could never be more wrong...

I have dyslexia and by learning cursive it helped me with mixing up d and b because it made me think about what I wrote

If I'm lazy, I use cursive. if I feel like writing, I use the normal handwriting.

I actually learned the Palmer method in third grade and that was in a New Jersey public school in 1995. And I'm glad I did because I like the extra loops on the letters. I developed a distinctive way of signing my name, where I make the loop on the M into a huge spiral and sometimes I add a huge spiral to the beginning letter of my last name too. I would've never discovered that if I'd been taught the boring D'nelian method, which is what they taught in the school I transferred to the next year. That second school also had a writing curriculum called "Handwriting Without Tears" and when I saw that I thought, "Give me a break! Who is crying when their learning to write? Are they serious?" My teacher even managed to fit in teaching us how to write calligraphy too, that year. I don't get why so many people think the Palmer method and teaching cursive in general is such a big deal. And I was struggling with an undiagnosed learning disability at the time, yet I still thought that. It's important for kids to learn cursive so that they can make a legal signature, that over time, will become distinctive and unique for each person.

Woah! Y'all learned cursive writing at 3rd grade?? We just jumped right into it from like a kindergarten age where we just learned it together with non-cursives

I don't understand the problem with cursive. I live in France and in first grade we all learned to write in cursive and to read either in cursive or print, there was nothing difficult about it. Some people decide to write in print as they get older but everyone can read cursive handwriting. When foreigners can't read my cursive handwriting it feels like they're uneducated. (I know they aren't but it's a basic thing in my country.)

Is this some sort of american thing? I don't see why i would not use cursive

You know, it's even weirder here in Serbia. As serbian language uses 2 writing systems (and it's the only language in the Western world to do so), Cyrillic and Latin, we have a strange paradox, where cursive Cyrillic is used often, but like NOBODY writes cursive Latin! In fact, I'm not even sure that most of the people know how to write cursive Latin, although of course we all know how to read it!

cursive is faster to write because you don't have to lift your pen/pencil off the paper each time

Vox: Cursive writing is dying *when the teacher talks too fast while you're taking down notes* Me: No it isn't sweetie 👁👄👁

As an Austrian, I cant even imagine how live without such an important skill. How can you even write fast, without this technique. In Austria, we are only using cursive handwriting.

Dying in the US. In Brazil, where I was born, live and teach Portuguese, everyone write in cursive, even the small children.

Everyone should be taught how to write in wingdings instead.

how can you claim writing in cursive isn't practical? I was taught both in Europe and cursive was always much easier and faster to write in.

I have written in cursive since middle school just because I have found it to be faster than print. My cursive may be trash but it sure is effective 😂

I love how Vox allways forgets that places outside the US exist.

Ten years from now we will start writing in emoji

my hand writing is already barely understandable, if i use cursive it will just look like some strange alien writing

When i was still in my college years, my professor told me this about cursive writing: "It is necessary for a teacher to write in cursive because writing in cursive is much faster than in writing in print. When you will be assigned to places where there is no electricity or means of printing, writing in cursive is the quickest way to do your paper works".

I - as a lefty - learned to write with my right hand when going to school in Germany, because it eliminated the issue of smudging when writing with a fountain pen, which, from maybe the second or third year in primary school, was the type of pen that everyone had to write with. Ballpoint pens were not allowed. When I went to high school in the US agreed around 16/17, I really enjoyed using a ballpoint pen, because I found the flow when writing a lot easier. After school, I didn't do much handwriting at all, hardly ever any cursive, for over 20 years. I recently completely relearned cursive handwriting, because I realized that I was completely incapable of writing legibly, and at reasonable speed, when writing by hand, and I've switched back to left-handed writing. It is indeed possible to write nicely with your left hand, just not with a fountain pen. It also takes practice, and if you think that your handwriting is terrible, just work on a style you like and practice. A lot.

Man, Vox is like better and improved BuzzFeed.

Instead of learning cursive we should teach kids another language in 2-4th grade.

In Switzerland 🇨🇭 it’s different, we learn cursive as default and later if we want we can write in non cursive but most of us write in cursive here nowadays.

I feel like everyone in Czech Republic writes cursive too. And I think it is taught as a primary option in schools, that is in like 1st grade. I personally use it because it is faster. Not necessarily prettier, but faster and still quite readable.

I write much faster in cursive

In England we just call this joined up handwriting and is just writing regularly but adding lines between letters, not all this loopy stuff

I learned cursive when i was little..ever since then i write no other way ...i get compliments on how my handwriting is so small...intricate..and beautiful... I really wish more people wrote in cursive..but i dont want it to be enforced on kids...

I could never write in cursive anyway because my hand writing was that bad...

Cursive is beautiful and more easy to write...for me

Bad handwriting squad🤘

I write in cursive (my school taught it for 6 years and my mum did calligraphy growing up). I've always received a mixed response to it, some have called it neat and 'Victorian-like' others called it 'doctor's handwriting' and I've had to read my work to people as they've never been taught to read cursive. I do it out of formality, to be honest, just like how someone would learn to speak in a way to sound polite, I personally think it looks more professional. I've seen more people gush about beautiful cursive than they ever have normal print. I would hate for it to no longer be taught, it's such a lovely tradition.

I was born in USA in 1969 so of course I learned cursive. My son was born in 1994. I noticed he did not use cursive hardly at all. Son is now 27 yo and he still prints for the most part. Honestly I didn’t know what was happening or why he was doing it but now this video it is shedding light on the reason.

Here in the UK we call it 'joined up' and 'not joined up' lol. I write joined up because it saves time

I swear this is just an American issue, writing in cursive is much quicker and easier.

Nobody: The people in the comments attacking Americans on how we don’t know cursive:

What has been lost is not just cursive handwriting but the beautiful penmanship that commonly existed on a wide scale basis. It is unquestionably with a sense of nostalgia that I look a specimens of handwriting from the earlier parts of the last century.

Interesting how this is taught later on in kids' education in the US. I am from Poland and here they just teach us to write cursive from the very beginning. Since it's first writing system we learn, there's no problem with it replacing something that was there before. Why not just do that? They will want you to write like that until 3rd, maybe 6th grade, around that time people start developing their own handwriting. Does anyone know the reason why in the US cursive isn't just taught from the start?

When kids think cursive writing is a foreign language, there's something wrong.

I had no idea this was now an issue. I write cursive as easily as any other writing. It is not hard to learn and its a fun way to write!

As a gen z who writes spencerian, I can't tell you how frustrating it is when someone can't read your writing.

I remember how I was never taught print, we just went straight to cursive

Hold up. Cursive is taught? Where I'm from, most of us have cursive handwritings yet none of us was taught that. I had no idea in some places people were taught cursive. It just came naturally to us.

Writing cursive _is_ faster, which is important for taking exams, notes at work (if a computer isn't available), and strains the hand less. There are also studies which show that reading more difficult fonts, which would include cursive, signficantly helps information retention - in fact, I think this was also covered by Vox at some point? So, there are three good reasons to write in cursive, or at least partially, since few people write in a perfect cursive script. Also, from a purely aesthetic point of view, cursive looks far nicer than print. I don't know why people are so averse to it, honestly. It's a better way of writing - otherwise, it probably wouldn't have been invented...

As a European, I cannot grasp why some people don't write in cursive. Cursive is much better and it is unique to every writer.

I write in my diary in cursive bc most people cant read it anymore

I WRITE IN ALL CAPS.

My school doesn't teach cursive but I learned it anyways only so people didn't cheat off me

As someone who never learned cursive, the text in this video was not easy to read

Learn math and problem solving skills. NOPE Learn science and the mysteries of our world. NOPE Learn languages and critical thinking skills. NOPE Learn to be nice. NOPE Learn to make pretty scratches on paper. YES

Guess you can't sign your name then...

Cursive gang where you at? 👇

US is a funny place, y’all have laws requiring cursive handwriting to be taught in schools, but are not required to learn the metric system.

In my opinion we should replace cursive with typing. At my primary school they taught cursive in third grade but then replaced it with typing which I'm grateful for. To this day I use those typing skills WAY more than cursive.

It all depends on who's handwriting you're reading. I do genealogy as a hobby, and after looking through numerous census documents, along with marriage, birth, and death certificates, I HATE that many were written in cursive and at times are almost illegible to read.

I would take the SAT analysis with a grain of salt. I write in cursive normally but use print for legibility on tests.

I’m the only person in my school who writes in cursive. Everyone is shocked and most people make fun of me for it D: Tbh I just like it because I can go faster without having to lift up my pencil every time for a new letter ~ I can just loop it all together - Plus it just looks nice and formal 👍

Vox: Cursive handwriting is dying and a politicians refuse to except it. Also Vox: *has a cursive logo* 👁👄👁

I have dyslexia and like a lot of other dyslexics that were taken into classes for it were taught to write in cursive because it was easier for us. I really liked your video I just wish you would have addressed the benefits it has to children with dyslexia and not said there are "no major benefits"

Cursive handwriting is dying in the US, in my country everyone writes in cursive. America is so back-to-front.

After elementary school, I never used cursive for anything except my signature. Though, in my last year of college, I noticed my writing had evolved to fit the pace of note taking by adopting some kind of primitive version of cursive. I guess there’s some utility for hand writing, but really its that skill which is dying out anyway.

I was taught cursive in second grade and had to use cursive exclusively by the end of second grade. Cursive is faster to write than print because the flowing of the pen on paper only stops after writing the whole word. Also, maybe its just me, but back in high school and college, before I typed essays, I would always hand write a rough draft, and asked someone else to double check grammatical and spelling errors; and for whatever reason, when I wrote things in cursive, I had less grammatical and spelling errors than when I wrote things in print.

I think it's dying because people like me can't read cursive very well.

A shame. This video really doesn’t capture the whole story - the adoption of the pencil (over the ink pen), the speed and ergonomic benefits to cursive, and the tactile benefits for children, etc. :/

I used to have cursive writing. But after seeing those western studytubers notes which are in print letters and overly aesthetic, I started writing in print letters to be minimal and aesthetic and now my friends, family and teachers scold me for writing like that since our boards will cut off marks if not in cursive handwriting (cuz it'll be considered good writing) I want to change my habit again ughh I'm working on it.

I remember me and my dad looking at one of my mother's cursive shopping lists, trying to figure out what "salaga" was, we finally decided it was "salsa"

Where I'm from, cursive is the only writing system we learn, and I love it, you can write a lot faster in cursive.

I haven't used print in years, I always write in cursive

been writing cursive since the 3rd grade! 18 now and i’m glad i’ve kept practicing it for years! very beautiful writing

I'm Austrian and we were only taught to write in cursive, so it wasn't 'learning to write a second time' but that's just how we learned our letters. (It's not like that at all schools though). A lot of my former classmates don't write cursive anymore, but I still like to use it, as it's just way faster.

I type in cursive

Sweet lord, is the narrator a millennial? So much vocal fry. (There's your next topic, Vox!)

See if Americans aren't writing in cursive it doesn't mean that it's dead